An 18-year-old man is accused of collaborating in a chilling setup that ended with the homicide of a Chicago Lyft driver at Christmastime 2023, prosecutors revealed in court docket this week. He’s the third particular person charged within the case, a part of a violent group of teenage hijackers that investigators imagine was answerable for a slew of armed robberies of rideshare drivers within the winter of 2023.
The sufferer, Adriana Arocha-Duque, 34, was killed on December 26, 2023, in what prosecutors described as an orchestrated ambush in Austin. In keeping with a detention petition filed by Assistant State’s Lawyer Jake Bartels, Derrius Younger, who was 16 on the time, and a bunch of accomplices used a cellphone, iCloud credentials, and ride-hailing accounts stolen from a earlier theft sufferer to lure Arocha-Duque right into a lure.
Non-public surveillance cameras captured Younger and three accomplices leaving a home and strolling a brief distance to a pickup level within the 2100 block of North Leamington, Bartels mentioned.
Lyft information present Arocha-Duque picked them up in her 2020 Chevrolet Suburban round 8:20 p.m. Seconds later, her SUV pulled onto the 4800 block of West Thomas. It stopped abruptly in the midst of the block earlier than all of the sudden jerking ahead.
Prosecutors allege one of many hijackers shot her behind the top at that second. A safety system recorded the sound of the gunshot earlier than the 4 hijackers bolted from the SUV, Bartels mentioned.
Further video confirmed one of many hijackers working with a handgun in his proper hand because the group disappeared right into a courtyard constructing they mentioned as they deliberate the ambush in cellphone conversations, based on Bartels.
Investigators tied Younger’s cellphone location to the group’s actions that night time. Prosecutors mentioned the cellphone was lively close to the co-defendant’s house from 6:30 p.m. till 8:30 p.m., moments earlier than the homicide, after which once more at 9:30 p.m., after the killing.
Younger was arrested this week. After initially denying he was current, prosecutors mentioned he admitted being on the scene however claimed he didn’t fireplace the shot.
Choose James Murphy III detained Younger throughout a court docket listening to Friday. He’s charged with six counts of homicide, armed theft, and aggravated illegal restraint.
Prosecutors additionally disclosed that Younger’s co-defendants are below investigation for a broader string of armed robberies in Chicago, suggesting the homicide could have been half of a bigger sample of violent crimes.
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